1:25 to 2:20 PM
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Moderator: Carlton Allen, MS, CHW, MCHES
Carlton Allen is a dedicated healthcare professional with a passion for advancing cancer prevention and research. With a background in population health and health services research, Carlton has spent more than a decade making significant contributions to the field. As the Program Manager for Prevention at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), Carlton plays a pivotal role in coordinating, supporting, and evaluating program activities within the Prevention Program. Carlton’s commitment and knowledge in population health and health education have supported the success of CPRIT’s endeavors. He has attained a master’s degree in health sciences and a Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) certification, along with a Community Health Worker (CHW) certification. This foundation has enabled him to develop comprehensive programs and interventions that resonate with diverse populations and create impactful change. He encourages collaboration among professionals with varied backgrounds to drive meaningful advancements in prevention and research and continues to be an influential advocate for cancer prevention.
Jennifer Molokwu, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Dr. Jennifer C. Molokwu, MPH is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso. She obtained a master’s degree in public health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology. After completing her residency training in Family Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, she joined the faculty at TTUHSC El Paso.
She has strong clinical and research expertise with research interests in cancer early detection and prevention, health disparities, program implementation, patient education, and shared patient decision-making. She is the program director of multiple CPRIT-funded programs developed to improve breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screening and prevent HPV-associated cancers. In addition, as PD and Co- PD on several CPRIT-funded cancer prevention grants serving El Paso and West Texas, she has built on groundwork previously developed to grow collaborations with many community organizations and programs to promote cancer prevention in the region.
She currently serves as the Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Director for Cancer Prevention and Control in the Department of Molecular and Translational Medicines’ Center for Emphasis in Cancer.
María Fernández, PhD
Dr. María Fernández is Vice President of Population Health and Implementation Science at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) and the founding Co-Director of the UTHealth Houston Institute for Implementation Science. Dr. Fernández is also the Lorne Bain Chair of Public Health and Medicine, Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of the UTHealth Houston Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research (CHPPR) at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health.
As a researcher and a leader, Dr. Fernández has spent her career conducting participatory community-engaged research and practice to develop, evaluate, implement, and disseminate interventions to improve health and health equity. Her research focuses on cancer and chronic disease prevention and control among underserved populations in the U.S. and globally. Dr. Fernández is an expert in dissemination and implementation (D&I) research, having served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health Study Section and as faculty for several national and international D&I training programs. Dr. Fernández has an extensive portfolio of global, federal, and state-funded research developing and improving evidence-based interventions and guidelines for the prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in clinical and public health settings.
Dr. Fernández has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has co-authored several books, including the 4th edition of Planning Health Promotion Programs: An Intervention Mapping Approach (2016) and the Handbook of Community-based Participatory Research (2017). Her awards include the Association for Schools and Programs of Public Health Research Excellence Award and the UTHealth President’s Scholar Award for Research Excellence.
Scott A. Larson, MD, PhD, AGAF, FACG, FASGE
Dr. Scott Larson received his MS in Biotechnology from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, and his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and Gastroenterology fellowship from UTMB. He was a faculty member at UTMB prior to joining UT Houston where he was Associate Professor, Medical Director at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital and Associate Program Director for the fellowship program. He is currently Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, to the Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology where he provides services at the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (MEDVAMC). He is site director for Quality and the Fellowship Program at MEDVAMC.
In addition to general gastroenterology and hepatology, areas of interest include trainee education, quality assurance, colon cancer screening, and health care delivery to safety net populations. Dr. Larson can be reached at [email protected] .
Navkiran “Kiran” K. Shokar, MD, MPH
Navkiran “Kiran” K. Shokar, M.A. M.D., MPH , is a tenured professor and chair of the Department of Population Health, associate dean for community affairs and co-leads cancer prevention and control at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.
Kiran was born and raised in England, where she received her Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University and her medical degree from Oxford University Medical School. She completed family medicine residency training in the U.K. (Banbury, Oxfordshire) and in the U.S. (Houston, Texas), and completed her Master of Public Health degree at the University of Texas Houston School of Public Health. She currently serves as the inaugural Chair of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Prevention Advisory committee.
Kiran is a clinical scientist whose research interests include interventions in cancer prevention and control, employing community-based approaches to address cancer prevention and early detection health disparities among vulnerable, poor and underserved populations. She has developed innovative population health approaches to bridge the divide between the community, the health care delivery system and public health. Her main focus has been to understand and address colorectal cancer screening disparities integrating community-based health promotion and implementation science approaches to improve the development, delivery and uptake of evidence-based screening interventions. She has developed and led CPRIT-funded comprehensive colorectal, breast and cervical cancer screening interventions and is the PI of the recently funded statewide Colorectal Cancer Screening Coordinating Center (CONNECT). She has received over $33 million in extramural research funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the National Institutes of Health (NCI) and others.
